Scottish Executive

Castle Tioram

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-9569 by Mr Frank McAveety on 3 August 2004, what publicity was given to the fact that the decision regarding the restoration of Castle Tioram was taken by Historic Scotland (a) at the time the decision was made and (b) subsequently.

Mr Frank McAveety: Scottish ministers' decisions on Scheduled Monument Consent applications are routinely delegated to Historic Scotland, an agency directly accountable to Scottish ministers. Historic Scotland receives around 200 such applications each year. It has not been the agency’s normal policy to publicise the outcome of consent applications either at the time of the decision or subsequently. However, copies of the decision letter are routinely sent at the time of issue to the local authority and those with a specific interest in the land affected e.g. as owner or tenant. In the case of Castle Tioram, no additional publicity was given to the decision at the time nor, for legal reasons, during the period when the applicant’s appeal was before the Court of Session. Since then information on the decision has been provided in answers to parliamentary questions and in discussions, for example at a meeting of Highland MSPs.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Janis Hughes (Glasgow Rutherglen) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what advice it has received from the CJD Incidents Panel about the risk to patients who have received plasma products derived from blood donated by people who subsequently developed variant CJD and what action it proposes to take as a result.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Health Protection Agency, on behalf of the CJD Incidents Panel, has provided an assessment of the risk associated with each batch of plasma product; has advised which patients needed to be assessed and, where necessary, subsequently contacted, and has given advice on how the possible risks to public health should be managed.

  In the light of these assessments, the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) are now initiating a process to notify patients of these developments. The SCIEH are sending information to clinicians to enable them to trace particular plasma products. The clinicians will then notify any patients identified as "at risk" as a precaution for public health purposes. Patients should expect to receive this notification within weeks.

  I will make a further statement at a later date, if necessary.

National Health Service

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated cost would be of altering the NHS superannuation scheme so that pensionable service prior to 6 April 1988 and after March 1972 would count towards the provision of widowers’ pensions.

Tavish Scott: The NHS scheme provides widowers’ benefits on the same basis as for widows in respect of service from 6 April 1988.

  The capitalised cost of providing widowers cover, for the period from March 1972 to April 1988, is estimated at approximately £59 million. As the most recent valuation of the NHS scheme is still to be completed, this figure is based on the 1999 valuation of the NHS pension scheme in England and Wales.

  These costs would have to be met in full by the whole membership of the NHS scheme, and there is no indication that they would be willing to do so.

National Health Service

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many staffed beds there were in each category of care in the NHS in each of the past 10 years, broken down by NHS board area.

Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is given in a table "hospital beds by specialty" a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 33661).

National Health Service

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which cost pressures facing NHS Argyll and Clyde, not fully funded by the Executive, have originated from Executive policies.

Malcolm Chisholm: All NHS boards in Scotland receive an annual uplift in their unified budget allocations which are designed to cover both local and national inflationary pressures, as well as service developments. The unified budget for each board is based on the allocation formula which aims to give each board its fair share of the resources available nationally. It is for each NHS board to manage within their resources, allocating their uplift as determined locally.

  There are a range of cost pressures which arise from national policies, primarily relating to pay, e.g. basic pay increase, Agenda for Change, the Consultant’s Contract and the new General Medical Services Contract. The Executive’s estimate of the increased cost of these policies is more than covered from the record uplift in allocations for 2003-04 and 2004-05, supplemented by additional allocations from the Executive.

  NHS Argyll and Clyde have identified that the annual uplift to the unified budget allocation for 2004-05 does not cover all national and local cost pressures as identified by the board. As a result, the board are planning to take a number of measures to reduce expenditure and identify savings over the course of the year.

Nuclear Power

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when Her Majesty’s Government and the devolved administrations’ updated policy on the decommissioning of the United Kingdom’s nuclear facilities will be published.

Ross Finnie: The updated policy on the decommissioning of the UK’s nuclear facilities was published today. Copies have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 33737), and it is available on the Executive’s website at www.scotland.gov.uk.

Police

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many police stations were closed in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area.

Cathy Jamieson: Information on the number of police stations closed in each of the last five years is not held centrally. The total number of stations closed in seven out of the eight police force areas over the past five years are shown in the following table. The figure for Strathclyde is the total over the past seven years.

  

Force
No. of Stations Closed


Central Scotland Police
0


Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary
1


Fife Constabulary
1


Grampian Police
11


Lothian and Borders Police
0


Northern Constabulary
7


Strathclyde Police
38


Tayside Police
4



  Source: Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

Public Appointments

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of the ages of people appointed to public bodies in each of the last five years.

Mr Andy Kerr: The information requested is as follows:

  

Age Range
Number


April 1999 to March 2000
April 2000 to March 2001
April 2001 to March 2002
April 2002 to March 2003
April 2003 to March 2004


66+
11
26
20
16
16


56-65
72
102
92
87
87


46-55
105
95
110
93
80


36-45
24
29
60
44
31


35 and under
4
1
8
10
6

School Meals

Frances Curran (West of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many education authorities have introduced multiple-use cards for school meal applications in secondary schools.

The Executive have supplied the following corrected answer:

Euan Robson: Ten Scottish local authorities have introduced multiple-use cards for school meal applications in secondary schools.

Scottish Executive Expenditure

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total amount paid by each of its departments to employment agencies for the supply of temporary staff was in each year since 1999.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Scottish Executive currently has two contracts for the provision of agency staff. Administrative and clerical staff are supplied through a contract placed with Pertemps. A contract is also in place for the provision of interim managers with Hays.

  Employment agency staff are used by the Executive for a number of reasons including pressures arising from maternity leave, sick leave, project work, unanticipated crises (e.g. foot-and-mouth disease) and critical vacancies. The total amount paid by each department for the supply of temporary staff (as structured now) to employment agencies is as follows:

  Departmental Spend on Recruitment Agencies 2000-04

  

Department
2000
(£)
2001
(£)
2002
(£)
2003
(£)
2004 to date
(£)


Office of the Permanent Secretary 
244,312
238,264
201,292
323,139
469,521


Development Department
26,247
46,716
119,611
231,792
206,495


Education Department 
29,772
44,334
91,330
305,650
409,164


Enterprise Transport and Lifelong Learning Department
17,846
25,015
30,628
21,751
26,087


Finance and Central Services Department
320,492
383,321
345,208
262,141
168,929


Health Department
111,213
166,143
191,647
296,097
278,418


Justice Department
121,812
172,835
148,201
390,283
526,507


Environment and Rural Affairs Department
201,262
167,516
156,265
219,066
183,737



  Individual departments may have brought in temporary staff from employment agencies outwith these contracts, for example where specific professional skills have been required, or in outlying areas, but this information is not held centrally.

Scottish Executive Staff

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff work for ministers in their private offices and what the annual cost is of employing these staff.

Mr Andy Kerr: Sixty-four staff currently work in ministerial private offices at an estimated annual staff cost of £1,990,000. This figure includes ERNIC and overtime.

  There are a further three Scottish Executive staff who are assigned to the Crown Office and one Crown Office employee who provide support to the Law Officers at an approximate annual cost of £98,638. This figure also includes ERNIC and overtime and is based on average staff costs.

Scottish Water

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it took to ensure that the report into openness at Scottish Water, commissioned in 2002 and sent to the Executive in November 2003, was placed in the public domain.

Ross Finnie: None. That is a matter for those who commissioned the report, the Water Customer Consultation Panels.

Scottish Water

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive who holds the fishing rights for each reservoir owned by Scottish Water, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what Scottish Water’s policy is on fishing permits for older people and people with disabilities.

Ross Finnie: This is an operational matter for Scottish Water.

Water

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what response it will make to the submission of July 2004 by NFU Scotland (NFUS) regarding the EU Water Framework Directive; in particular, whether it will endorse the position that water abstraction controls in agriculture should only exist where a threat to ecological quality arises from a significant affect on water quantity; whether it will exclude very small water users from registration and, if so, how it will define this category; whether it will adopt the NFUS suggestion that all producers farming 50 hectares or less of enclosed land should be excluded from registration unless requiring water for irrigation or unless situated in a sensitive area; whether it will endorse the proposal that the lower boundary of registration under general binding rules be raised, subject to these provisos regarding irrigation and location, with a minimum threshold of 30 cubic metres per day consumption, and whether it will endorse the NFUS proposal that the upper boundary of registration under general binding rules be raised, subject to the proviso that those affected should not be irrigating in a sensitive area and, if so, whether it will endorse the upper threshold of 200 cubic metres per day.

Allan Wilson: The Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003-Controlled Activities Regulations consultation document was issued to a wide range of stakeholders and comments were invited on the issues raised. The Executive is currently in the process of analysing all responses, including that of the NFU Scotland (NFUS). In developing the final regulations, the Executive will ensure that all responses to the consultation are properly considered. It would not be appropriate to comment on any specific proposals at this stage.